IN STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS, SPEAKER QUINN RESPONDS TO NEW YORKERS’ NEEDS LARGE AND SMALL
THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS
CITY HALL
NEW YORK, NY 10007
February 15, 2011
Release# 016-2011
IN STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS, SPEAKER QUINN RESPONDS TO NEW YORKERS’ NEEDS LARGE AND SMALL
New York, NY – In her annual State of the City address, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn spoke about the importance of working with New Yorkers to address the problems and concerns facing them, both large and small. In today’s speech, Speaker Quinn tackled issues ranging from job creation and growth the City still greatly needs to the protection of valuable affordable housing to parking violations that are a source of frustration for New York drivers.
Speaker Quinn stated, “Government only succeeds when we serve as a microphone for the voice of the people, when we pay attention to what New Yorkers need, and work with them to solve their problems. Some of those problems are as big as a tenant getting evicted from her home. Others are as small as getting a parking ticket. Our job is to find a way to balance both the big and the small.”
INCREASING THE CITY’S FINANCIAL STABILITY
Reforming the way the City’s capital dollars are spent is key to creating a more stable long-term economy for New York City. The City currently spends 12 cents of every dollar to covering debts from past projects – by 2014 this will total $6.9 billion. To address this, Speaker Quinn proposed beginning a new system of paying for a portion of the capital budget up front. This was presented in contrast to Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to cut capital spending across the board by 20 percent. Quinn stated she will not support this proposal, noting that capital projects create roughly 50,000 jobs in an industry that has suffered more than most during the recession. Such an across the board cut would cost good jobs at a time when unemployment is still at 9 percent. More information
Quinn also called for more aggressive oversight of all city contracts, both large and small. There are currently more than 17,000 city contracts at a cost of more than $10 billion. Legislation proposed in today’s speech will require key elements of all city contracts to be summarized in plain language, and made available online, allowing the public to clearly see where money is going.
Speaker Quinn also took a stand in favor of reforming the city’s pension system. She stated, “It’s clear that New York City needs pension and benefit reform. Many factors have combined to create these long-term strains on the City’s budget. There is no single cause, nor any single group that bears all the blame. But if we want to have money to invest in a safe and livable city – if we want to avoid a tax burden that stifles economic growth – and if we want to safeguard the retirements of the hard working public servants of today – then our current pension and benefit structure is simply not sustainable. I urge both the Mayor and our city’s labor leaders to be equally open to negotiating and making fair and responsible changes to meet the difficult challenges ahead.”
STRENGTHENING THE ECONOMY
Speaker Quinn built on extensive work that the Council has done to support the City’s small businesses with the announcement of a new program to reduce senseless bureaucracy and make New York City even more business friendly. This program, NYC Business Link, will coordinate and streamline the inspection process for local businesses. With NYC Business Link, a business owner will be able to call 311 and be connected with a coordinator who will help get every permit, every license, every inspection needed and will coordinate with each City agency on the business’s behalf. More information
Recognizing that new technologies and innovation are the keys to the city’s growing economy, Speaker Quinn also proposed an initiative to strengthen New York’s place in this industry. A new citywide partnership between the tech industry and New York City’s universities – including CUNY, Columbia, Pace, Parsons, NYU and St. Johns – will create a pipeline between the jobs that are waiting to be filled and the New Yorkers who need them.
PROTECTING HOUSING AFFORDABILITY
Speaker Quinn proposed updating the City’s antiquated system for applying for affordable housing. A new one-stop online application for affordable housing will allow applicants to apply for housing lotteries and check the status of their applications with the push of a button.
The Speaker also announced a new partnership with NYU’s Furman Center that will create the city’s first ever system for tracking affordable housing. The system will identify the number of affordable units that exist, what program created them and when their protections are set to expire. This will allow efforts to protect expiring affordable to begin much earlier in advance, resulting in more units being preserved as affordable.
ELIMINATING EXCESSIVE TICKETING
Speaker Quinn proposed new legislation that will offer common sense relief for New Yorkers receiving unfair parking tickets. For drivers who receive a ticket while in the process in paying for a muni meter spot, ticket agents will now be able – and required – to cancel the parking ticket on the spot, saving New Yorkers from hours of senseless arguing in court and valuable dollars spent on unnecessary tickets.
The Speaker also presented two bills that will make it easier to find parking, one by providing the option for some streets to have one less day of alternate side parking and another by creating an interactive online map showing exactly where parking is and is not available.
In closing, Speaker Quinn noted the importance of addressing the full spectrum of issues facing New Yorkers, regardless of how large or small: “As long as we remain focused on the needs of those New Yorkers – as long as we remain true to their voice – then working together we can overcome the small problems and the big problems, not just here today, but every day, in every corner of the five boroughs.”